Page 15 of Thrilled By Her Protector

Caro narrowed her eyes, and she knew the woman was just getting started. Daeja looked on worried. And Jennifer tried to keep her friends’ conditions in her head before she did something stupid, like to tell them the truth about why she could never be with anyone. Not even him.

“I get that, Jenn, and I appreciate what the boys do for the supernatural world. But you are our business. This thing between you and Con, it is our business, Jenn. He is our brother-in-law, and you are like a sister to me. I want you to be happy. We want you to be happy. Something is wrong, and we want to help?—”

“You can’t help! My goodness, can’t you just leave it alone? Can’t you see how hard I am struggling here to keep it together? I can’t have a mate!” Jennifer snapped, regretting it instantly when she saw the look on her best friends’ faces.

“We are what we are, Jennifer. No man will ever want to keep us. Love isn’t for the birds. Not for us. Not for Owls. Now, you’ll live with Nana, and it will be okay. Just mind my words after I’m gone. Never give yourself to any man. Be your own Owl. Never take a mate. Promise me. Never! Promisssscreeeeech!”

Her mother’s voice echoed in her brain right before it was replaced by an ear-piercing cry. The sound of an arrow flying through the air and the abrupt end of her mother’s screech had told young Jennifer all she’d needed to know. Shifted into her Owl, Cynthia Dylluan had committed suicide. She nosedived from a perilous height right into a target range used by humans. An arrow pierced her heart, and a human hunter, some stranger thinking the poor wild creature was in too much pain, shot her right through the head, ending her life.

She’d left Jennifer sitting in the car, where her grandmother found her hours later. Nana was so distraught, full of tears and pain. But not Jennifer. She’d been numb. She didn’t cry then. Cynthia had explained it all. Her fated mate had broken their bond, and she was no better than the walking dead. What her mother had done was unthinkable, but she made sure Jennifer knew the reason.

Love had killed her mother. Not the arrow. Not the hunter. Love.

So, instead of crying, little Jennifer spoke the two words she hadn’t had the voice to say when her mother had demanded them. Before stripping off her human clothes and shifting to her bird, Cynthia had grabbed Jennifer by the arms and shook her, demanding she promise to stay away from men, and from love.

“I promise,”young Jennifer said as her grandmother collected her mother’s Owl from the humans at the range, claiming the creature was a pet. And that was all she said for those first few months after her mother died.

Slowly, with Nana’s help, Jennifer came out of her shell. She went to school, threw herself into learning, and managed to renew her friendship with Carolina. Later, she became a determined career woman, headhunted by the secret government organization, the DPCA or Department of Paranormal Creatures and Activity, and after that, she’d earned a position as handler to the WPU.

It was everything she worked for, and yeah, there were problems with the job. What government group didn’t have its problems? Even secret ones. But she did her duty, and at the end of the day—she was still alone.

That was simply a fact. But at least she was safe. Alone meant safe. That trumped happy, right? It might be boring. Might be lonely. But it was safe.

“Oh my God, Jennifer, I didn’t know. I thought your mom died in an accident,” Carolina said softly.

Jennifer felt hands on her shoulders and soon she was being embraced by all the women there. Shit. She hadn’t even realized she’d told them her story out loud. Sighing, she removed herself from their arms and gave them a tight smile. Their faces looked so sad, and she didn’t want that. Nor did she want their pity. She straightened her shoulders and looked each of them in the eye.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be mean about this. Please, I just, I can’t talk about Zircon right now.”

“I know it’s hard, Jenn, but you can’t believe your mother wanted you to keep that promise if it meant breaking your own heart, can you?” Kim asked.

“I made a promise, Kim. But what’s more important, I think, is that my mother was right. Look at me. I’m not cut out to be a mate.”

“I don’t know what the heck you’re looking at, but you look fine to me,” Caro replied, and Jennifer rolled her eyes.

She was not talking about her body. Jennifer was full of curves, and she loved that about herself. Typically, flight Shifters were thin and fine-boned, but not Owls. They were fierce, large, and aggressive predators. She liked her size just fine. That was not the issue.

“What happened with your sire?” Daeja asked, and Jennifer cringed.

“Um, I never saw my father again after he left us.”

“I see,” the Drakein replied softly.

“But Zircon isn’t your father, Jennifer,” Caro said, and it was that statement that shook her the most.

“Duh. Of course not,” Kim added and scrunched her nose.

Zircon was just so intense. He was so sure they were meant to be, but what did he know? She had more only slightly more experience. Hell, she never even had an actual boyfriend. Not for more than a few dates, anyway. How could she when all the men she met only paled in comparison to him? But she knew better than to believe in that pipe dream. So, she ignored it. For years.

Her Owl was mad as fuck at her, but Jennifer reined in the creature. She buried herself in her work. It helped that she liked her job and was good at it. Jennifer enjoyed the challenge of managing the WPU and she felt duty bound to the Shifter species as a whole to do what she could to keep their secret from the human world.

“Forgive me for intruding, I know I am not one of you yet?—”

“Of course you are, Candy!” Carolina said, interrupting the sweet Christmas Elf.

Jennifer tried to hide her smile, but it was impossible. Candy was the cutest thing she’d ever seen. And with her expecting the Ancient Egyptian Demon/Demigod’s—no one had ever quite agreed on what exactly Medjed was—offspring, well, she was even cuter.

“Thank you,” Candy blushed, then cleared her throat before continuing, “but it occurred to me with all the female Drakein in residence, perhaps Zircon can break the bond he began with Jennifer by forging one with another of his own species?—”

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